The source was a report by the Syrian Centre for Policy Research (SCPR), a non-profit think tank whose co-founder, Zaki Mehchy, is visiting Australia this week on a trip funded by the Council for Australian-Arab Relations. The centre's work repeatedly produces appalling statistics: 35 per cent of Syria's population are in abject poverty; from 2011 to 2015, 13.8 million Syrians lost their livelihoods; and school non-attendance is estimated at 45 per cent.

This is the kind of information that makes people throw up their hands and declare Syria a lost cause. But for Mr Mehchy, surprisingly, it is a source of hope.

"We are trapped in a catastrophic conflict, one of the worst since World War II," he says. "To get out, it is necessary to understand the dynamics of all the actors. And to understand them, we need research that is evidence-based."

That research has shown Syrians have not given up on their nation's future.

"Even the least educated people are able to distinguish very cleverly between the state and the regime," he says. "This regime hijacked the state 50 years ago, but people tell us 'we still believe in the state' ... they seek public services, laws and regulations. But they reject the dominance of the army, mukhabarat [intelligence services] and [regime-endorsed] religious leaders."

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After seven years of bitter and destructive conflict, Fairfax Media asks, surely most Syrians simply want a return to predictable life, even if that means restoration of regime control?

"It is human to say 'I just want to live'," says Mr Mehchy. "When Daesh [Islamic State] took over in Raqqa, people did not support it but they dealt with it. In the same way, now that the regime has restored its control over eastern Ghouta, around Damascus, people are coming out and chanting for [President] Assad. These are the same people whose relatives have been killed by the regime."

Despite the regime's brutality and the influence of external powers such as Russia, Iran, Turkey and the Gulf monarchies, Mr Mehchy insists the Syrian populace remain the most powerful actor in the conflict.

"This is not utopian," he says. "In 2010, it was inconceivable to most analysts and external powers that Syrians would ever rise up against their rulers. Yet they did.

A girl with "Aleppo" written on her face shouts slogans during an anti-government demonstration in Bennish, on the outskirts of Idlib province, in August 2012.Credit:Reuters

"They rose up in March 2011 and by May the regime had begun releasing militant Muslim Brotherhood figures from jail to provoke a transition to armed conflict, while detaining civil activists or forcing them to flee. Violence is the regime's playground ... they understand armed conflict, but not negotiating with a civil movement.

"Syrian people now are frustrated because they see no alternatives beyond the regime on one side and the chaos of Islamist armed groups on the other. What they want is a project to support, and it is up to the SCPR and other activists to contribute to that project.

"Another rising won't happen tomorrow, it might not even happen for 10 years ... but we need to be ready when that day comes."

Zaki Mehchy will speak on the Syrian conflict's impact on economics, health and education at the University of Sydney's Law School as part of Sydney Ideas at 6pm on Tuesday June 12.